Sorry for my delayed response. In addition to having a 9-month-old little boy and working my *** off, I'm in the middle of final exams, papers, and presentations for the final semester of my 2-year MBA program, so I've had extremely limited spare time. Ha-ha!

To answer your question; I would've let my awesome ding guy give it a shot, had the paint not been pealed up in that one spot. And, even with the paint peeled up, I was still considering letting my ding guy smooth everything out, then having the entire hood taken off and repainted by the body shop. But, when I took it to the body shop, the owner, whom I've used in the past and completely trust, steered me away from that decision for several reasons which made sense to me. In addition to the aluminum stretching, he basically said, "Why pay to do all of that repair work, in the mere hopes that it will look OK? It would be a lot better to just do it right through insurance, and go ahead and replace the whole hood, so it’ll be perfect.” I was totally OK with that suggestion because the largest Porsche dealership in Atlanta sends all of their stuff to this guy and he only works on higher-end cars, which is how I was referred to him (a friend was rear-ended in his heavily upgraded 911 Turbo and took it to this body shop). Plus, I’ll be happy to have a new hood with no rock chips in the paint, etc.

So, I called my insurance company, filed a claim, and set up a time for the estimator go to the body shop to see my car and talk to the body shop owner directly. When I told the owner of the shop that I was definitely going to go through insurance, he let me know that he was going to beat up the hood a little more, so that there would be no question about replacing it. He said that the estimator probably would've agreed to replace the hood in the first place, but he’s had countless issues where the insurance company wanted him to try to repair it first, but it never ended up being perfect, and he always ended up having to replace the hood anyway, so they essentially just wasted a lot of time and money for nothing. And, since the body shop owner is as picky as I am and won’t accept anything less than perfection, and it also seemed to make everyone’s lives easier, I was fine with whatever he wanted to do. Especially since it was only a $500 deductible against my comprehensive coverage, no raise in rates (vandalism exception), and no CarFax report generated. But, I didn't meet the estimator at the body shop when he went to look at my car, so I didn't actually see the hood after it got beat up more, and can’t say how bad it ended up. The whole car should look brand new when I pick it up this Thursday, though, because the body shop is also getting a $300 comprehensive detail done before I pick it up.

On a side note… at one point before the decision was made to go through insurance, I was actually considering having the body shop just cut out a few holes around the bad dings in the hood (I would smooth out the others), and adding a few smaller carbon fiber louvers like the ones I already have. Sort of like the Aston Martin V12 Vantage hood or a Vorsteiner hood for a BMW (see attached pix). But, the placement of the dings was right on the rise angle of the hood bulge, so it wasn't an option.

I am still considering adding a few smaller functional louvers somewhere on the hood, though. I just need to source the right carbon fiber louvers first, to see what my options are. I might even see if Chris at Mina Gallery can make some smaller versions of the ones I got from him. Not only do I love the look of the contrasting carbon fiber hood louvers, but these supercharged engines generate so much heat, that I usually have to ventilate my insulated garage to cool it off in there, especially if I'm going to do any shop work when I get home. So, any additional heat dissipation would be greatly appreciated. Not to mention that I have the same supercharged 5-liter engine in my '12 Range Rover Sport Supercharged, so when both of those rigs have been out and about, it feels like the 9th level of hell in my garage.

Anyway, I’m glad that it all worked out well for you, and that you’re happy with the repairs. I hope that I’ll be just as happy with mine, when I get it back on Thursday. Fingers crossed…